Former teachers remember 2 MCA students

Sara Higgins

Published 6:18 pm, Monday, September 3, 2012

Photo: Tim Fischer

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Students, parents and teachers fill the gym at Midland Classical Academy Saturday evening as they gather as a family to mourn and remember two students that died in a vehicle crash. Tim Fischer/Reporter-Telegram less

Students, parents and teachers fill the gym at Midland Classical Academy Saturday evening as they gather as a family to mourn and remember two students that died in a vehicle crash. Tim ... more

Photo: Tim Fischer

Former teachers remember 2 MCA students

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Memories continued to pour out Sunday for the two Midland Classical Academy students who were killed in a car crash Saturday while on a field trip in Arizona.

Robert Whitefield Henson, 18, and Bryce Carrigan, 14, were remembered by former teachers as "intellectually gifted" and always ready to lend a helping hand. As they remembered each teen's personality, the shock of what had happened over the Labor Day weekend continued to settle in.

"We've never encountered anything like this before," said Tiffany Miller, a second-grade teacher at MCA.

Henson and Carrigan were killed early Saturday morning on their way to a national park in Utah. The SUV, driven by MCA teacher Matt Slavick, was headed westbound when it left the roadway at 1:47 a.m. and rolled several times about 40 miles southeast of the Grand Canyon on State Route 264, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety's duty office.

The four other occupants of the vehicle, including the driver, were sent to Flagstaff Medical Center, where Slavick was treated and released, DPS officials said. Seventh-grader Colby Coleman; his father, Cliff Coleman; and eighth-grader Zach Evans were in stable condition at the Arizona hospital Sunday afternoon, according to hospital staff. Others on the trip returned to Midland in time to attend a prayer service held at the school Saturday evening, said those who attended.

The teens were on an Adventure Club trip, according to officials. The club trips are not official MCA events but are organized privately and private vehicles are used.

"Adventure Club is for the adventuring spirits that don't mind long drives on three-day weekends for fun and fellowship," the school's website said. "Trips usually come about because a tutor or parent has a desire to travel somewhere and is not afraid to organize others to come along."

School leadership declined to comment further on the accident Sunday evening.

Carrigan was an "incredibly bright child" who was full of contagious joy, said Miller, who taught Carrigan as a first-grader. When he saw a new teacher moving heavy boxes into her room last year, he didn't hesitate to lend a helping hand.

"She came to me later and was flabbergasted," Miller said. "She said, 'He was so polite, he held the door for me. Will you tell his parents for me that they're doing a fantastic job raising that young man?'"

Carrigan recently had been on his first mission trip overseas with his father, Miller said.

"He was just kind of coming into his own," she said. "He was blossoming into the man he was growing into. He was such a polite, kind and giving young man, and I saw that develop more as he grew."

Henson, who was known as "Bob" by his peers and teachers, often could be found singing at the school's basketball games or sporting a knit cap along with a sweater his grandmother had knit him, his teachers said. Former MCA teacher Jean Russell, who taught him in sixth through eighth grades, remembered him as a "humble leader."

"He could have taken over the world," she said. "Bob was always the smartest kid in the class."

Henson received a school-wide character award as an eighth-grader for his all-around attitude, servanthood and interaction with peers, Russell said.

Her husband, Aaron Russell, taught Henson in math and science throughout high school. Though Henson played basketball and ran cross country and track, Russell said the young man was the "antithesis to stereotypical teenagers" when it came to his helpful attitude.

"Bob just loved living life," he said. "People experienced that just by being around him."

Joel Davis worked with Henson on and off the track as a cross-country and track coach as well as an algebra and geometry teacher. Henson had just run on the varsity cross-country team the week before the accident, realizing a dream he'd built toward his entire running career.

"He didn't have to be a leader on the team but just was out of his own character," Davis said. "It was impossible not to love Bob."

Though Henson never felt the need to take the spotlight from others, his presence was felt Saturday night at a prayer service for the two young men, Davis said.

"I saw Bob in the memorial last night," he said. "He was in a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on. ... That was something Bob was always campaigning for."